Re: Next Year's code
 

It's too bad Easyc will not be available next year. It made a difference on our team. The only way we could get it for next year is email FIRST and let them know how much we want it.

Re: Next Year's code
 

I overheard in the NI booth that easyC would be an option but obviously I have no confirmation from Intelitek or anyone else.

Re: Next Year's code
 

Ya its an option but FIRST has left Intellitek out of the loop on the new controller. Intellitek can have it ready, It's just matter of FIRST giving them info on the design.

Re: Next Year's code
 

Not at all. The most obvious difference is that LV uses icons instead of words, but fundamentally, the big differences are that LV uses data flow for scheduling, and can therefore easily do multitasking at a pretty fine-grained level. Also, LV wires represent values, not references to values. This helps to avoid many side effects of procedural code.

Finally, LV encourages and rewards you making functions. Each function has a panel for entering values, and seeing results. These make very good modules for testing a portion of your algorithm "before" your robot is moving across the floor. You can test as many input sets and boundary conditions as you see fit. You can also have graphs and other useful indicators for looking at complex data.

So some of these are not language, but environment things, but these are fundamentally more important that the fact that LV is graphical instead of typed.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Next Year's code
 

Well, okay if Lab View is all graphical, and I do now understand how to make it work, where exactly is probably some really good tutorials on it??
Also, just how different is C from C++??

Re: Next Year's code
 

How different C is from C++ pretty much depends on how you write code. The big difference is that C++ has objects, which opens up a lot of programming options. On the other hand, you can write purely or almost purely procedural code in C++, that looks pretty much like C. Picking up the syntax differences (which are really additions) in C++ is pretty easy if you know C already. But programming in an object oriented manner is not that easy to just pick up if you haven't done it before. On the other hand, if you know Java and C then picking up C++ is pretty easy.

Now here is a plea from a computer science teacher to all the students out there. Give Lab View a try. Don't be seduced by the argument that since it is graphical it is somehow less worthy than C/C++. There are a lot of good programming practices that Lab View can teach you. First and foremost among these is testing modules of code. This makes debugging much easier and leads to better overall coding. (One of the things I love about Java as a teaching language is the ability to add a main method to each class in order to test it.)

Re: Next Year's code
 

Well, I was just thinking could you just simply use both, for example go and program in C/C++ then go into Lab View but it into the a simulator, and debug it, this might work, I am not sure on the extent, if Lab view can read C/C++ or not, but it's a thought I had.

Re: Next Year's code
 

Using both languages is a good idea and a great way to make yourself a better programmer, but keep in mind LabVIEW is a full programming language itself, not an IDE or simulator for C.

LabVIEW does have the ability to call C functions in libraries, but if you want to debug C code you should be using the tools with your C compiler/IDE. For the 2009 FRC you will have the Wind River Workbench for C/C++ development & debugging.

Check out http://ni.com/community/first for tutorials and information. You should also have example code included with the copy of LabVIEW in your 2008 FRC kit.

Re: Next Year's code
 

I'm trying to think of what are the main advantages of writing the robot's code next year in C++.

I know most of the language and i've done a project in Visual C++ before but I'm just thinking forward for next year to see what does this means for the robot.

What I can think for now is that it can help make all the robots functions for specific critireas (autonmous, teleop, disabled) orginized in a simple and recognizable way so anyone could understand the code better.

Classes could help define the set of functions that will work in this case and in that case (like I said, with the auto, tele and disabled, but also in the case of a certain switch turned on before the match and stuff like that).

Can't think of any much else. :-/ :confused:

Re: Next Year's code
 

LabView is certainly cool software, and I'm excited that we have the chance to use it more fully. I'm also very glad to hear that C/C++ will be fully supported by NI.

Really, you should be able to do this with any programming language. That's the whole point of encapsulation with classes and functions.

Re: Next Year's code
 

Yeah that's what I thought, so that's why I was curious to which program language would in fact be better C/C++ (using encapsulation with classes and functions to debug) or Labview(using graphical imaging to debug your code) or third option of just first coding it in C/C++, then going to Lab View and re code the C/C++ in Lab View Code (yes this would take longer, and is it worth it?)

Re: Next Year's code
 

From another thread, an answer:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=22